KPIZOOTICS IN THK XVII CKNTURY. 9 



lence, lost their flesh by degrees, and fell into a maras- 

 mus. 



Rammazini did not scruple to declare these pustules 

 to be the small-pox ; for they differed not from it in 

 form, in colour, or in the manner in which they went 

 off": when they had dried off* after the suppuration, 

 they left a black scar, like that which remains after 

 the small-pox. This epidemic contagion continued in 

 1691, and attacked chiefly the sheep, so violently that 

 the breed w^as almost destroyed. It has been con- 

 stantly observed, that of all animals sheep are the most 

 subject to small-pox. It was, therefore, to be expected 

 that they should be particularly affected with it, since 

 they are more disposed to it than other cattle*." 



In 1693 pulmonary phthisis proved very destructive 

 to oxen, and " Hesse saw her herds carried off' bv it :" 

 the supposed cause being the changeable condition of 

 the atmosphere. 



Lower Hungary is said to have suffered severely in 

 1712, at the early part of the year, from a malady attack- 

 ing the cattle which is not very clearly described ; but 

 in August of the same year vfe learn " that a new kind 

 of disorder shewed itself, associated with white pustules 

 filled with matter insufferably stinking." And Mills 

 adds, that '' every circumstance, especially the pustules, 

 declare this distemper to have been the small-pox, com- 

 plicated with some other disease. The liquor which 

 flowed from the mouth greatly resembled the spitting 

 which comes on in men in the small-pox. The difficulty 

 of breathing, the stench of the breath, and the infectious 

 smell of the pustules, are symptoms which constantly 

 attend the clavin, claveau, or small-pox in sheep." 



* Mills on Cattle, London, 8vo, 1776, p. 407-8. 



C 



